Conventional personal vehicles such as cars, trucks, and vans are equipped with headlights to illuminate the road and driving conditions while driving in the dark or in low light conditions. Vehicles configured for use away from streetlights of towns and cities are often equipped with additional headlights including fog lamps and high-beam headlights. However, many vehicle owners find that these factory-installed lighting options do not provide enough light for driving in extreme dark conditions, such as those found when off-roading, driving in the backcountry, or while setting up camp in the wilderness.
As such, many vehicle owners opt to purchase aftermarket lighting accessories to provide additional lighting while driving, or when parked. These lights are often very bright, and may be angled to suit the needs of the owner. A wide variety of lights for such uses are presently available on the market in a variety of sizes, shapes, and colors. One of the most popular forms of aftermarket lighting of modern vehicles is that of the horizontal LED light bar, which is positioned on the front of the vehicle, and is configured to cast bright light ahead of the vehicle from a multitude of LED bulbs.
Light bars such as these offer great functionality, and cause little drain on the battery of the vehicle, making them a popular choice among truck, Jeep™, Land Rover™, and other popular off-roading vehicles. They are easy to install by the owner in most cases, and provide ample lighting for most needs. It is expected that some vehicle manufacturers will begin integrating horizontal LED light bars into vehicles as a stock option.
Unfortunately, most horizontal LED light bars on the market cause drag on the vehicle via wind resistance. Even worse, the wind resistance is known to cause an audible ‘whistle’ noise when the vehicle is traveling. Presently, few solutions are available to the owner to eliminate this sound, which is caused when air is rushed over the heat dissipation coils or heat sink of the light bar. The wind resistance caused by the lack of aerodynamic design in conventional LED light bars can also negatively impact the fuel economy of the vehicle. Additionally, LED light bars presently on the market are rarely equipped with a light cover, which prevents bugs and other debris from collecting on the lights of the light bar. Light covers on the market fail to provide an aerodynamic design to minimize wind resistance.
If there were a cover for aftermarket LED light bars that could solve the audible ‘whistle’ noise while providing an aerodynamic design to the light bar, owners of vehicles equipped with LED light bars could have a more peaceful riding experience while still enjoying the benefits of a horizontal light bar.
Thus, there is a need for a light bar cover equipped with an aerodynamic design, which is configured to prevent the ‘whistle’ sound caused by air passing through and around the light bar. Such a device is preferably equipped with a hinge or hinge-like mechanism by which the front portion of the light bar cover may pivot so that the lights of the light bar may be exposed to illuminate the space ahead of the vehicle. Alternate embodiments are ideally configured with a uni-body styled frame, which need not be opened for light to be emitted through the cover.
Light bar covers found in the prior art all fail to provide an aerodynamically neutral shape to facilitate the reduction and/or elimination of noise caused by air movement over the light bar. As such, they fail to adequately reduce the sound caused by wind. Additionally, light bar covers presently on the market have mechanical parts, such as hinges, which is unlike the present invention, and are installed differently than that of the present invention. Many light bar covers also fail to encompass the entirety of the light bar fixture, and instead, serve to only cover the front of the light bar, unlike the present invention.